Chapter 88 - Declan's way (1)

Initially, Judith had ȧssumed that if the man with the cigar had kept her group away from the confrontation and had asked them to content themselves with observing what was going to happen at first, it was because before letting them clash with the zombies, he wanted them to see what the zombies were capable of, however, she realized that she had gotten the wrong idea...

The zombies couldn't show how dangerous they were, they weren't given the chance, and considering the casualness and violence with which the man with the cigar and to a lesser degree the man with the spear had dealt with this horde, she made the new ȧssumption that the real purpose of this demonstration was to ridicule the zombies to the point where it would be sure that no one in her group would be frozen in fear when it would be time to get their hands dirty.

Did it work? In her case, Judith's answer was definitely 'yes' and since she could see that Gabriella and her brothers were looking at the man with the cigar and the man with the spear as if they were the only real monsters here, she could say that their answer was without a doubt no different than hers.

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5 minutes earlier

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Arrived behind the barricades, one would have to be blind not to have noticed the piles of nearly a thousand corpses of zombies that were the result of the battles of the last few days, and one would have to be deprived of smell not to have perceived the nauseating stench that was emanating from them and was filling the surrounding air...

None of the members of Judith's group being stripped of these two senses and since they knew that without the two men in front of them these piles would be much less massive, they were all convinced in advance that the 200 or so zombies that were charging in their direction from the other end of the bridge where they were standing didn't stand a chance. However, they never could have imagined the kind of the massacre that would take place.

Compared to yesterday Judith had seen that the man with the cigar had hardly made an effort regarding the choice of a more appropriate outfit to fight; he had replaced his flip-flops with black boots which were much more convenient and instead of his shorts he had chosen to put on a wide black pants which were also much more convenient, but instead of his short-sleeved shirt he had put on a white tank top which would protect him even less from the bites of the zombies, something which was a very very bad thing if Judith's cinematographic knowledge was correct in this new 'reality'...

Seeing that he was taking such little precaution was a source of annoyance for her, even though she wasn't showing it because she had the intuition that with a person like the man with the cigar doing so could be a valid reason for him to reconsider his decision to train her group, 'This ȧsshole even put on fuċkɨnġ suspenders! What's the point!?' She wondered with a bit of indignation while asking herself if there was any purpose in doing this other than to be annoying.

Judith as well as the others saw the man with the cigar walk up to the side of one of the hundreds of cars that were abandoned on the bridge, while the zombies at the front of the horde were about 150 meters away from him he was taking the time to gently lay down his sunglasses and his cigar on the roof of the car, 'Am I dreaming or is he doing it on purpose?!' She ȧssumed angrily while imagining herself stabbing him several times in the back without knowing that her ȧssumption was actually totally true since he could use his inventory to store what he had just laid down...

On top of that he didn't stop there, although Judith could only see his back now since he had finally bothered to face the zombies, she had the annoying hunch that he had a big smile on his face when he started to remove his suspenders from his shoulders with an exaggerated slowness as the zombies were coming closer and closer to him.

Fortunately the man with the spear was there, his very respectful demeanor helped to forget the bullshit of his partner and his calmness was contagious, "Tell yourself that he won if he manages to piss you off and you'll manage to tolerate him a little better." He said with a serene tone while making his spear spin with his fingers...

"However, just because he acts like a moron doesn't mean he is one, so like he said, stay where you are and don't interfere until he gives you a sign." He added before walking in the direction of his partner.

A few seconds after the man with the spear finished his sentence, his partner finally decided to do something against the zombies, but from where Judith was it looked completely stupid before he finished his action...

She hadn't forgotten the fact that the fists of this men were bloody yesterday and that she had yet to caught a glimpse of his weapon, but she thought that maybe he was going to prank them again by taking it out of one of his pocket at the last moment or something like that, however, she quickly realized that he really intended to fight with his bȧrė hands.

At first he was walking leisurely towards the zombies, then he suddenly dashed towards them at a speed that Judith's eyes weren't able to follow, it was to the point that from her perspective at one moment he was at a place and the next one he was in front of a zombie that initially was at least 10 meters away from him...

What followed afterwards could be compared to a bowler whose goal was to knock down not 10 but 200 pins, who was using not a bowling ball but the pins themselves to knock down the others and who wasn't limited to one or two attempts to knock down all the pins.